1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of cutting a ceramic green block.
2. Description of the Background Art
In order to cut out chips from a fired ceramic block or cut an Si wafer, generally employed is a dicing saw, which has high dimensional accuracy in cutting. However, the dicing saw, which is adapted to cut a workpiece with a high-speed rotary knife in general, is not suitable for cutting a soft or adhesive material.
On the other hand, a ceramic green block is generally pushingly cut by a blade. Such a ceramic green block is soft enough to allow a blade to cut pushingly the block at a higher cutting speed as compared with the dicing saw, with equipment of a lower cost. Thus, the cutting operation can be carried out at a reasonable cost.
Chips thus cut out from a ceramic green block are employed as elements for obtaining ceramic electronic components, for example.
As electronic components have been increasingly miniaturized and improved in performance in recent years, chips must be cut out from a ceramic green block in higher cutting accuracy.
When a blade is employed for pushingly cut out such chips, however, it is difficult to attain high cutting accuracy due to movement of the block or the chips during cutting, as understood from the cutting principle thereof. Further, it is difficult to pushingly cut a ceramic green block which has a hard internal portion of a metal film or a metal foil by such a blade.
On the other hand, a dicing saw is satisfactory in cutting accuracy. When such a dicing saw is adapted to cut a soft workpiece such as a ceramic green block, however, the cost for the cutting step is increased since such a soft material cannot be cut at a high speed.